Update: HOLLIDAY A CARD 7yr/120 million, p178

[BW23]

I don't think talking to Boras about Damon will do any good at all. Can't see it at all.

[jim]

Naively I would think it would create competition.

[BW23]

Naively I think it would do more harm than good. Boras knows pretty well what the cards are willing to spend on Holliday. He also will present Damon (to any team) as the third, if not second, best OF on the market. He wanted just a tad less annually for Damon than the cards are offering on MH. I just don't see how the Cards calling on Damon helps with Holliday. It might help get Damon after Boras hands over Holliday to another team. The Cards may end up with Damon at that point but with an overpriced contract. And it will all drag out and cause the team to miss out on other players both from a timeline and financial standpoint.

JMO

[Eephus Speed]

Damon shouldn't get any more than Cameron got (2 years, $15.5M), but I won't be surprised if he does.

[fanforever]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... e_col.html

Now that the dust has begun to settle on a slim free-agent market with slim pickin's, it appears Johnny Damon and Jason Bay are going to wind up with teams they never would've dreamed of playing for, while Matt Holliday will have to settle for considerably less than the $18 million-$20 million per year his rep Scott (Avenging Agent) Boras asserted to be his worth.

We start with Damon, a terrific guy for whom there will be no sad songs sung here over his self-imposed exile from the team he loved, the Yankees. It wasn't as if the Yankees deceived him. They told him from the get-go that if he wanted to come back it wasn't going to be on a three-year contract or anywhere near the $13 million salary he earned on his last contract. To that, Boras told them: Then don't bother making an offer. So they didn't. And neither, it seems, did anyone else. And so, not surprisingly, Boras grossly misread the market, and by the time the agent came down on his demands to the Yankees (to two years, $20 million), it was too late. They Bombers had already moved ahead and agreed to terms with Nick Johnson to bat second and still weren't prepared to offer Damon any more than $14 million-$15 million total. If Boras hadn't established the parameters of the bidding at the outset, the Yankees conceivably would have started at two years, $14 million and wound up somewhere near Bobby Abreu's two-year, $19 million market deal for corner outfielders with the Angels.

It's anyone's guess where Damon ends up now - Atlanta if the Braves can move Derek Lowe? The Giants? (talk about a buzz kill). But without the Yankees as leverage, he's likely going to have to settle in the neighborhood of what they were prepared to offer him. How will he feel about that? Not sure. But you know what? Damon has only himself to blame. Here's a guy who has made $97.2 million in his career and for an extra $6 million he sacrificed happiness and contentment and all the other perks associated with playing for a world champion team in New York. If he really wanted to stay a Yankee, he should've told Boras: "Go shop around for a three-year offer, but at the end of the day just make sure I'm still wearing pinstripes." Instead, he drank the Boras Kool-Aid and came out looking like just another baseball mercenary. Happy trails, Johnny.

As for Bay, he, too, can thank his agent, in this case Joe Urbon, for pricing him out of Boston, a righty hitting-friendly ballpark/and virtual guarantee of the playoffs every year to, very likely, a pitcher's paradise in Citi Field and a Mets team that, even with him, looks to be no better than a third-place club in the NL East. At least the Mets seem to realize that Urbon, after losing the Red Sox, has no more market for Bay, especially after the Seattle Mariners, who were bidders early on, acquired Milton Bradley on Friday to fill their last remaining need of an outfield bat.


I'm told that even after the Red Sox signed Mike Cameron to play left field, Urbon went back to them to see if they would re-visit negotiations with Bay, which broke off after the agent rejected their four-year offer of just over $60 million. Kind of like that scene in "The Godfather" in which the soon-to-be garrotted Abe Vigoda/Tessio pleads for mercy to Robert Duvall/Tom Hagen, who replies: "Can't do it, Sally."

That Urbon has refused to say yes to the Mets' offer of four years, $64 million while continuing to press them for a fifth year, is clear enough indication that Bay doesn't want to end up at Citi Field. But at this point, where else is he going to go?

Urbon's best hope now to place Bay on a more desirable team is if Boras continues to overreach with Holliday, for whom he is seeking a contract of six years plus and between $18 million and $ 20 million per year. Not happening, even though Boras has now raised his old familiar "mystery team" trump card in an effort to scare the St. Louis Cardinals into upping their offer of five years and around $16 million per year. Boras, too, scared off the Red Sox on Holliday, and what both he and Urbon are finding out is that, without the Yankees and Red Sox as bidders for your client, it's very hard to get an above-market deal. If the Cardinals weary of Boras' evade-and-delay tactics, they might emerge as a welcome alternative to Urbon for Bay.

[GeddyWrox]

Stick to your guns, MO!!!!

[Hungary Jack]

The article is a great read. I still think there is a decent chance Damon ends up a Yankee, but at a relatively low price. Bay is probably pretty screwed here, because Boston is done with him and he'll end up with the Mets, where he won't put up nearly the numbers he did in Boston.

Hopefully Boras doesn't drag out Holliday's negotiations too much longer. If Damon returns to the Yankees, that is probably the last domino to fall. I still think the Braves could/should be a factor is they can unload Lowe on the Angels for some inexpensive talent, but that's a real wildcard.

[Bo Hart]

The article is a great read. I still think there is a decent chance Damon ends up a Yankee, but at a relatively low price. Bay is probably pretty screwed here, because Boston is done with him and he'll end up with the Mets, where he won't put up nearly the numbers he did in Boston.

Hopefully Boras doesn't drag out Holliday's negotiations too much longer. If Damon returns to the Yankees, that is probably the last domino to fall. I still think the Braves could/should be a factor is they can unload Lowe on the Angels for some inexpensive talent, but that's a real wildcard.

I agree, it was a good read. The only part I really disagreed with was the very end, where he suggested that St. Louis might pursue Bay. They've already went on record as saying that they're not interested in him as a Holliday alternative.

[lukethedrifter]

The article is a great read. I still think there is a decent chance Damon ends up a Yankee, but at a relatively low price. Bay is probably pretty screwed here, because Boston is done with him and he'll end up with the Mets, where he won't put up nearly the numbers he did in Boston.

Hopefully Boras doesn't drag out Holliday's negotiations too much longer. If Damon returns to the Yankees, that is probably the last domino to fall. I still think the Braves could/should be a factor is they can unload Lowe on the Angels for some inexpensive talent, but that's a real wildcard.

I agree, it was a good read. The only part I really disagreed with was the very end, where he suggested that St. Louis might pursue Bay. They've already went on record as saying that they're not interested in him as a Holliday alternative.

I never really understand just what the point of going on record as being not interested is. Sounds pretty meaningless to me.

[Socnorb11]

The article is a great read. I still think there is a decent chance Damon ends up a Yankee, but at a relatively low price. Bay is probably pretty screwed here, because Boston is done with him and he'll end up with the Mets, where he won't put up nearly the numbers he did in Boston.

Hopefully Boras doesn't drag out Holliday's negotiations too much longer. If Damon returns to the Yankees, that is probably the last domino to fall. I still think the Braves could/should be a factor is they can unload Lowe on the Angels for some inexpensive talent, but that's a real wildcard.

I agree, it was a good read. The only part I really disagreed with was the very end, where he suggested that St. Louis might pursue Bay. They've already went on record as saying that they're not interested in him as a Holliday alternative.

I never really understand just what the point of going on record as being not interested is. Sounds pretty meaningless to me.

Well, if they don't deny interest, then everyone assumes that they ARE interested, and then the fans are angry when nothing happens.

I realize that's a pretty lame answer, but it's true.